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I'm a first time DM for some first time players, and one of the first house rules I implemented was changing the rate at which they recovered hit points. Instead of 1/day I chose to make them recover half their total hit points with a night's rest, so they could be fully recovered in two days if down near death.

Also, I guess you three were just running a dungeon crawl in a dungeon populated by only Goblins? I really do understand why you would quickly grow bored with that. I don't know what your interests are, but me and my group like to include some roleplaying other than combat. When there's context to the fight, it's more interesting. When the fights are broken up by other things, it's less repetetive. And when there's some variations in what enemies you're fighting, it's more fun.

My final recomendation is to just start a couple levels higher. In the game I ran I saw people weren't too happy about their low levels, so I excelerated the leveling process for a little while to get them high enough that they could have more fun with a wider variety of abilities and enough hit points to not get one shotted.

Those are my thoughts, anyway. 

From the looks of it, you're two people up against way more goblins than you should be handling. Were you also using cover? Cos they have to run out of javelins sometime.

Jul 29, 2011 -- 10:44PM, zeratulcraft wrote:

From the looks of it, you're two people up against way more goblins than you should be handling. Were you also using cover? Cos they have to run out of javelins sometime.

We made some use of cover. The shootout just seemed like bad odds, though. After the session, the DM mentioned several exotic tactics that we could have used to our advantage. One of them was using Mage Hand to drop globs of molten copper (from a smelter) onto the goblins. I wish I'd thought of that.

Gah, so much trouble to clear out a few goblins.  

• I hate being 1st level.

Ask to start at a higher level. Most 3.5 groups I know of start at level 3 (minimum).

•  I hate rolling Spot and Listen checks every two seconds.

Don't. The DM can't make you roll. Say "I'm not looking around, I don't care if I see it." Alternatively, say "I am taking a 10 while we walk around. That gives me a 1X for the rest of the adventure until we level"

•  I hate the recordkeeping,

Don't. Write your spells per day, and HP. Thats all you need to track.

•  the constant rolling of initiative,

This is supposed to be 1/fight. That doesn't seem all that often to me.

•  watching the DM draw the battle scene on a whiteboard, counting 5 foot movement increments, all of it. 

Ask to use a narrative form. I personally don't like it, but 3.5 is designed to be used either way. "I run 30ft over to him" instead of "I move these specific squares."

•  Most of all I hate getting by butt kicked by a bunch of goblins who like to throw javelins from cover.

have your PCs leave. "We don't actually care about these goblins. Screw it lets go." or better yet "Hey higher level adventurers, we found a job for you. It is too much for us, but needs to be done. You go do it. We will find some rats to stomp on." If you are lucky you get to play those adventurers.

• and I can put them to sleep.

I just want to point out that this is a great tactic for a 3.5 caster.

• I find out that we only recover 1 hit point per night's rest

This is probably the most common house rule. Most groups I know at least add your con mod to this. Mine just goes to full.

• One of them was using Mage Hand to drop globs of molten copper (from a smelter) onto the goblins. I wish I'd thought of that.

Tell the GM you would appreciate hints like this while relavent instead of after the fact. You can even pull the "I am new, I don't know everything yet" excuse. But you really have no way of knowing whether that would be a valid tactic, many DMs would shoot that sort of thing down, and its very much up to house rules.

Alternative tactic. Pool party gold, buy a lot of hunting dogs. Flood the caves with those.  If you don't have much $, spend X weeks doing untrained perform in the streets. 

As experienced as the DM may be that doesn't mean he can't improve.  TELL him you are put off by what seems to be excessive numbers of spot and listen checks.  If the DM wants you to hear it/spot it - you should hear it/spot it.  Only if there needs to be a chance that you don't should he be calling for checks.  It is generally considered standard procedure that you listen at doors before you open them to possibly determine what's on the other side and thus be prepared for it before you open it.  In a dungeon with a lot of doors that may be a lot, but the number of listen checks that the DM should be needing you to make beyond that should be MINIMAL.  Spot checks - well there's traps and creatures that are SUPPOSED to be hard to notice, but you shouldn't need to be making spot checks repeatedly unless you're in the Dungeon of Pirate Ninjas.

You'd have to be more detailed about what all seems like excessive record keeping.  Initiative, as noted above, is once per combat.  You roll it at the start and it changes only by taking actions that change your position in the order - not by rerolling.  If you're making constant initiative rolls then the DM is either using a house rule or you're doing it wrong.  If the battle environment is a simple one (plain room with 5 goblins and not much else) there isn't much need to draw anything out - especially since with just 2 PC's you're NOT gonna want to just charge in but have the samurai hold position in the doorway while you cast spells from behind him.  If goblins are in a room, behind cover, throwing javelins and refusing to move then alter your tactics appropriately.  Sleep should work on them regardless of cover - end of problem.  The samurai could use a bow.  You could improvise a mantlet (a big, lean-to shield) to carry with you through the dungeon to provide YOU with cover.  Equip yourselves with a lot of alchemists fire or just flaming oil and Molotov them to death, create smoke to provide concealment as you rush them, or distract some of them while you deal with the others.  Your characters abilities and equipment are not THE answer to everything - they are simply the basic tools you have at your disposal.  Don't limit yourself to them alone.

First few levels is a challenging time.  Improvise, adapt, overcome.  If you think you're facing the final room but the meat shield is wounded - drink that healing potion before you go in.  Alter your tactics again.  Be prepared to run away.  Taunt them and get them to come to YOU, rather than you walk into a prepared ambush through the open in crossed fields of fire.  Build a box-tank from dungeon doors to get you to the Shaman first and break the morale of the remainder.  Go recruit help or bribe a few surviving goblins to switch sides.  They shouldn't have an unlimited supply of javelins so maybe you can draw their fire with some kind of scheme like using one of the dead goblins as a puppet and then when they're out of ammo go for the throat.

A party of two.  A DM who "likes to make things challenging".  Players who haven't played in 15 years (when the game rules were 2nd Edition, not 3.5).  Uh huh.

I say TALK to the DM about your concerns.  DM's don't have ESP.  I'm sure he'll be very disappointed that you're not enjoying the game but first be sure he KNOWS THAT.  If he's unable or unwilling to run a game that you can ENJOY then he's perhaps not as "experienced" as you think he is and you ought to look for a different DM.

Meanwhile, chalk this one up to a learning experience for BOTH sides and give it another go.